Most ridiculous price you have been quoted?

red_eye

reeac wrote: »

I had to Google to find out what coil overs are and discovered that they are adjustable suspension units .... seems strange that, if adjusability is their big merit, that it costs £165 to get it done. Do you have to reset them as they age or if you carry more passengers/luggage?

whe they are fitted they have to be set up for ride hight, bump and rebound it takes some maths to get it right and then some road test to fine tune. make and model specific units are already tuned to the car but they are just in the ball park set ups just like the ome parts

ROY47

But that would not repair the swirl valve issue!

I think that line was taking the mickey

QUOTE=red eye;58079431]yes it would, you just say to the mechanic that you want a new inlet manifold fitted. the manifold is removed when taking the head off so all you would be paying is for the head gasket job and the inlet manifold:money:[/QUOTE]

as in repair swirl marks in the paintwork !

charlieheard

£700 to replace 2 worn bearings on the rear wheels of a Yaris. You can't just buy the bearings for £20 nowadays - you have to buy the complete assembly, with ABS gubbins, etc. In the end I bought a 25k mile rear axle off a scrap front-end accident Yaris for £100

rummy

£580 to get a cambelt changed. Most of the independent garages were offering it at £180. The same VW dealer also charged me £680 for a service and very few repair work. Not even sure how it got to that much. They also told me my horn was weak and needed replacing (which I didn't and is still working) but forgot to tell me my front shock absorbers were leaking and console bushes splitting. Not sure how my horn beeping was far more important than my front shockers/console bushes need replacing. Of course, I will never use that service centre again.

£280 to get front brake pads changed when a VW dealer was offering it at £239 and that wasn't even with genuine parts but cheaper ones. The garage must have thought I was a complete idiot. Needless to say, I would never recommend them or use them again.

rev_henry

When I was 17 and driving my mother's corsa, started riding really weirdly as the tyres had become misshapen (original tyres on a 9 year old car). National tyres said it needed new ones all round - £180. Went straight to a random local indie who pulled a face when I said I'd been to National and replaced just the fronts for £70. Rears still not replaced about 30k later when we got rid of the car. Don't think my mother would have noticed the bumpy ride at all bless her.

Needless to say that became my first garage of choice. Don't use them much anymore as they're always incredibly busy (a good sign surely?) - needing about 5 days notice and the car at 8.30am!

I consider myself very fortunate to know of several cheap indies locally to wherever I am.